Sculpin
Fish of the superfamily Cottoidea
A sculpin is a type of fish that belongs to the superfamily Cottoidea in the order Perciformes. As of 2025, this superfamily contains 5 families, 112 genera, and 405 species.
Sculpins occur in many types of habitat, including ocean and freshwater zones. They live in rivers, submarine canyons, kelp forests, and shallow littoral habitat types, such as tidepools.
01Families and subfamilies
Families include:
- Family Rhamphocottidae Jordan & Gilbert, 1883 (horsehead sculpins)
- Family Cottidae Bonaparte, 1831 (sculpins)
- Family Psychrolutidae Günther, 1861 (marine sculpins)
- Family Jordaniidae Jordan & Evermann, 1898 (longfin sculpins)
- Family Nautichthyidae Taranetz, 1941 (sailfin sculpins)
- Family Hemilepidotidae Jordan & Evermann, 1898 (Irish lords)
- Family Hemitripteridae Gill, 1865 (sea ravens)
- Family Agonidae Swainson, 1839 (Poachers and sea ravens)
- Subfamily Hypsagoninae Gill, 1861 (dragon poachers)
- Subfamily Agoninae Swainson, 1839 (hooknose poachers)
- Subfamily Anoplagoninae Gill, 1861 (alligator fishes)
- Subfamily Podothecinae Gill, 1861 (sturgeon poachers)
- Subfamily Brachyopsinae Jordan & Evermann, 1898 (uppermouth poachers)
- Subfamily Agonopsinae Vandenberg et al. 2026 (spearnose poachers)
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Sculpin”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Longhorn sculpin.jpg by Unknown author, Public domain
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